Friday, February 24, 2006

Sleazy, Scheming, Conniving, and Treacherous

Charles McGrath's review of Ed Hayes's memoir in the most recent Sunday New York Times Book Review says the "most interesting section" of the book is the one which describes "one of the few times when Hayes has found himself in over his head" -- namely, when he got involved with the art world:

"In February 1987, Hayes became counsel for the estate of Andy Warhol. The appointment was in part a fluke — Warhol died on a Sunday, when none of the white-shoe law firms were answering their phones. And though Hayes, in pursuit of a woman, had once jimmied a lock and forced his way into a Warhol party, where he got his butt pinched by Andy himself, he knew nothing about art or the art world. He had to learn on the fly, and he sensibly concluded that his main task was to maximize the value of the estate by building up Warhol's posthumous reputation. Everyone stood to gain, he figured — the beneficiaries and, not incidentally, Edward Hayes, who would be getting a cut. Except that for reasons too complicated to explain here, the executor and the Warhol Foundation decided that the assets were actually more valuable to them if they were worth less, and charged Hayes with incompetence and money-grubbing. The whole business dragged on for a decade, and by the time Hayes was finally vindicated he was close to both bankruptcy and a nervous breakdown. He concluded that he had vastly underestimated his adversaries, and that the cultural elite and the slick lawyers who represented them were 'sleazier, more scheming, more conniving and far more treacherous' than any of the criminals and lowlifes he was used to."